Pilgrims 'stone the devil' on Idul Adha in Mina
Pilgrims 'stone the devil' on Idul Adha in Mina
Agencies, Mina, Saudi Arabia
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims "stoned the devil" on Friday in the last -- and highly risky -- stage of the annual haj, as Muslims around the world marked the first day of Idul Adha (Feast of Sacrifice).
Masses of faithful, still clad in a two-piece seamless white cloth or Ihram, flocked to Mina valley, just outside the holy city of Mecca, where three giant concrete pillars symbolizing "Satan" stand.
They came from Muzdalifah, a lowland between Mount Arafat, where they spent on Thursday, and Mina.
Pilgrims were throwing seven small stones they collected overnight from Muzdalifah at the first pillar known as the "big Satan."
"I think that the U.S. administration -- not the American people -- and Israel are the big Satans of this age. Today, I stoned both," a 30-year-old Pakistani pilgrim who identified himself only as Mohammad told AFP after performing the ritual.
The Bush administration had been targeting Islam and Muslims even before the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, for which the United States blamed Islamist radicals, Mohammad affirmed.
The "Stoning of Satan" takes place over three days during which pilgrims hurl seven stones every day at each of the three 18-meter (58-foot) high pillars standing 155 meters apart.
According to tradition, the ritual takes place at the site where Satan appeared first to Prophet Abraham, to his son Prophet Ismael, and to Abraham's wife Hagar.
"Islam orders respecting people's rights, money, honor and lives ... and instructs against killing children, women and the unarmed," Sheik Abdul Aziz Al al-Sheik said in a sermon.
He stressed that Islam was incompatible with terrorism and attributing terrorism to it is unjust.
"Fighting the oppressed Muslims in Palestine is terrorism and repression," he said, in reference to Israel. "The nation of Islam is going through immense events today, requiring attention be paid in order to be one nation defending its belief."
Security was tight throughout the area, reflecting the tension prevailing in Muslim nations after the Sept. 11 attacks and the U.S.-led war against terror, which many Muslims see as a war against their faith.
Abraham and his family each threw seven stones at Satan. The gesture has been perpetuated, and Muslims must perform it to complete the haj.
Iranian pilgrims held a rally to denounce the United States and Israel, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Every year during the pilgrimage, Iranians hold a low-key "disavowal of pagans ceremony" within their camp to condemn the United States and Israel.
Saudi Arabia said before the start of the pilgrimage that it will not tolerate any anti-U.S. demonstrations, but the reported rally was apparently allowed because it was confined within the Iranian camp.
Thirty-five pilgrims died last year in a stampede during the stoning. In 1998, 118 pilgrims were killed and more than 180 others injured, while a similar stampede in 1994 claimed 270 lives.
Thousands of security men, paramedics in ambulances, guides and civil defense personnel stood guard as a "human sea" came in and out of the stoning area, a two-tier huge track with a capacity for 200,000 pilgrims an hour.
Helicopters constantly hovered overhead to monitor the huge crowds with the help of more than 1,000 hi-tech cameras, all connected to a control room run by top security authorities.
Pilgrims carrying umbrellas to protect them from sweltering heat threw the small stones to cries of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest). Temperature was expected to soar above 33 degrees Celsius (92 Fahrenheit).
After the stoning, pilgrims offer the sacrificial meat, normally by slaughtering a sheep. At present, most of the sacrifices are slaughtered at a 500-million-riyal ($133-million) state-of-the-art abattoir and the meat is sent to poor countries.
The faithful then return to Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest shrine, to encircle the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure revered by Muslims as the house of God, seven times.